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The Visual/Kinesthetic Effects of Melodic Contour in Musical Notation As It Affects Vocal Timbre in Singers of Classical and Music Theater Repertoire

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The Visual/Kinesthetic Effects of Melodic Contour in Musical Notation As It Affects Vocal Timbre in Singers of Classical and Music Theater Repertoire The Visual/Kinesthetic Effects of Melodic Contour in Musical Notation as it Affects Vocal Timbre in Singers of Classical and Music Theater Repertoire *Kathryn Barnes-Burroughs, †Christopher Watts, Oren L. Brown, and Jeannette LoVetri Mobile, Alabama Summary: The purpose of this investigation was to obtain information from professional singers active in performing of both classical and music theater repertoire with regard to the visual/kinesthetic effect of melodic contour in musical notation as it affects vocal timbre. The evaluation of data gathered during the study indicates that there is reason to investigate the resulting postural shifts of the head and neck because they are guided by visual maps of melodic contour and its inversion. Significantly, it was discovered that the tone quality produced when a singer’s head and neck postures followed the natural melodic contour of the melody was in no case considered to be the most pleasing of the conditions studied and that, in many cases, the tone quality produced when a singer’s head and neck postures followed a map of the inversion of the melodic contour was judged to be much improved. The results of the study also indicate that the development of new technology for the general teaching studio, designed to address these effects, may be useful to these singers. Key Words: Posture—Timbre—Melodic contour—Classical voice—Music theater voice—Head and neck—Tone quality—Visual/kinesthetic effect— Technology. INTRODUCTION Accepted for publication August 2, 2004. Challenge Supported in part by a faculty development grant awarded by the Graduate School at the University of South Alabama. In June 2002, research was presented at the Voice Presented at the VoiceFoundation’s 33rd Annual Symposium: Foundation’s 31st Annual Symposium: Care of Care of the Professional Voice, Philadelphia, June 4, 2004. the Professional Voice that identified three primary From the *Department of Music, †Department of Speech criteria commonly recognized among singing peda- Pathology and Audiology, University of South Alabama, gogues for the determination of talent in untrained Mobile, AL. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Kathryn singing voices. Along with accuracy in intonation 1 Barnes-Burroughs, DMA, School of Music, Texas Tech Univer- and evidence of musicality, Watts et al demon- sity,Box42033, Lubbock, TX79409-2033. E-mail:barnesburr@ strated that beauty of timbre or tone color was also aol.com determined to be essential in the recognition of un- Journal of Voice, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 411–419 0892-1997/$30.00 trained singing talent. ą 2005 The Voice Foundation Within institutions dedicated to the development doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2004.08.001 of elite singing voices, talented persons with the 411 KATHRYN BARNES-BURROUGHS ET AL412 most consistent quality of pleasing tone color are prized and promoted. This is generally agreed to be true, both in classical voice and music theater voice training; it is the goal of most singing teachers to develop greater consistency in the tone quality of the student by use of the most healthy and efficient pedagogical means possible. One of the most commonly observed pedagogical FIGURE 1. Melodic contour in standard musical notation. challenges to the achievement of this goal is the often-encountered visual/kinesthetic connection of the singer’s body to the perceived motion of notes on a page of printed music. Because Western music theposture of the head and neck “alter the shape of the is notated on a vertically fluctuating horizontal grid, vocal tract.” Vennard6 then submits that changes in students of singing may sometimes mimic the ideal singing posture may produce tension and that motion of those notes across the page, raising and “sound that passes through a tense throat is differ- lowering postures of the head and neck in response ent from one that comes from a relaxed throat.” to the waveform seen in the melodic contour. That Following suit, Bunch7 contributes that changes in is to say, if one was to “connect the dots” of musical postural shifts may very well result in “undesirable notation, an irregular waveform would emerge to changes in vocal quality.” Through this virtual dis- reflect the intervallic movement of that melody cussion of two of the leading pedagogues of our through the pitches or fundamental frequencies of the era, and through further corroboration by fellow desired sound. This waveform is known as melodic voice scientist Johann Sundberg,8 we find the crux shape or contour and is evident in every motive, of the relationship between postural shifts of the period, and phrase of a melody in music.2 Figure 1 head and neck with resulting variable tone colors maps the melodic contour of a musical notation in the singing voice. These shifts in posture may example with a continuous chain-like bubble line produce less-than-favorable results. through the note heads, proceeding from left to right. In the field of voice therapy, however, postural This study focuses on the resulting vocal timbre shifts have proven to be useful tools for singers. produced by a singer when a nodding motion of Researchers such as Dejonckere and Lebacq9 have the head and neck follows this contour as that singer documented immediate improvement of voice qual- produces each tone of the melody. It further investi- ity simply by changing basic postural positions. gates the possibility of a new pedagogical tool ded- Similarly, the leaders of music theater methods, such icated to the correction of this phenomenon. as Jeannette LoVetri and Jo Estill, who are still determining the standard use of these methods, use Argument for investigation elevated postures of the head and neck for certain For the most part, existing studies and pedagogical vocal and technical effects. Still, classically trained texts address the relationship between the postures teachers of singing like James McKinney10 and Oren of the head and neck and vocal tone quality or timbre Brown11 follow in the tradition of warning against in broad strokes. Meribeth Bunch3 states that optimal the “habit of raising the chin to ‘reach’ for high vocal quality is the result of a “sense of balance rather notes.” Yet, both classical and music theater authori- than tension,”despite theinterplay ofthe antagonistic ties tend to prize consistent sound production suit- muscles of the breath, larynx, and resonators needed able to the artistic needs of the performance. to produce a pleasing tone. Similarly, William Ven- It is possible, then, that these seemingly opposing nard’s4 famous marionette image of ideal posture views of the positive and negative effects of postural for singing refers to the balance of the head sus- shifts are facets of the same technical paradigm pended from its top, along with the chest comfort- intended for easier use of the vocal mechanism by ably elevated, and the pelvis hanging from the spine. singers and consistent tonal output. As with Ven- To this general image, Bunch5 adds that changes in nard’s marionette image, apparently defying gravity Journal of Voice, Vol. 19, No. 3, 2005 MELODIC CONTOUR AND VOCAL TIMBRE 413 FIGURE 2. Authority perceptual measures chart. in its postural supports, most students of singing Voice Institute at USA: A Regional Center for have been told that “down is up” and “up is down” Voice Studies and Research at the University of with regard to the image we have of changing pitch. South Alabama. All participants had normal hearing, We have been taught that we should approach no history of chronic vocal pathologic conditions, no each higher pitch (than the one we are singing) as previous voice therapy, no history of drug or alcohol if it were lower, and each lower pitch as if it were abuse, no history of smoking, and no current aller- higher—all this in an effort to decrease strain on gies or voice problems at the time of testing. the mechanism and to increase usable vocal range for singers. Consequently, part of the art of singing Data acquisition is our ability to reconcile these directional opposites. This investigation was primarily contingent on The purpose of this study, then, is to investigate perceptual feedback as judged by 2 voice authorities the possibility that if we visually invert the concepts in a blind real-time setting with the 8 subjects. Oren of “high” and “low” with regard to notes within the L. Brown (primary, published classical singing au- melodic contour of musical notation, we might then thority) and Jeannette LoVetri (primary, published derive a more pleasing and consistent vocal timbre music theater singing authority) were seated behind a through training. screen and instructed to rate 8 voice samples per subject. They were not aware of the conditions set for the subjects in producing each sample, aside from METHODS the shift from classical singing voice to music theater Participants singing voice; because each was a teacher in both Eight trained, professional singers between the classical and music theater settings, both rated all ages of 21 and 45 years who regularly perform both samples. Four classical samples and 4 music theater classical and music theater repertoire volunteered samples produced from the same subject were rated as research subjects from the group of registrants at as either (1) unacceptable, (2) acceptable, or (3) the First Annual Pedagogy and Vocology Week of the ideal on an Authority Perceptual Measures Chart, Journal of Voice, Vol. 19, No. 3, 2005 KATHRYN BARNES-BURROUGHS ET AL414 FIGURE 5. Condition C—head and neck downcast. FIGURE 3. Condition A—postural shifts with natural me- lodic contour. and 4 in a music theater singing voice. The melody was sung on the vowel [a] in the following such as seen in Figure 2. Brown and LoVetri were conditions: also instructed to circle the most appealing sample Condition A: The subject was instructed to sing (in terms of vocal timbre) of the 4 classical and then the melody while reading the musical notation the 4 music theater samples for each subject.
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